Tea At Work

Posted by Rachel de Thample -  Food Writer, Waitrose Food Illustrated

The beauty of a little heap of steeped leaves, the bubbling sound arising from the kettle, the aromatic waft in the air once the leaves are infused and that sip of luscious gold or green… this ritual and all its sensorial attributes have inspired poetry over time.

For me, tea breaks are essential. They’re what motivate me. I strategise my day with tea breaks. ‘Finish this section of my To Do list by 10am,” I tell myself, “and then you can stop for tea.’

In fact, my tea breaks are scheduled at the times the old-fashioned tea trolley would roll around a post-war factory floor: at 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock.

Ah, but what to drink? What to drink…? Pondering this thought does, sometimes, distract from my work.

A deep, velvety Puerh? A toasty, invigorating Dragon Well? A fragrant and malty Keemun? Or, Sitwell’s tea of choice – a smoky Bohea?

I select my teas according to mood, and to chime in with the sort of work I’m doing. If I’m under pressure, I’ll opt for a something a bit stronger, like Keemun. If I’m mellowed, I’ll opt for a green or white. If I need to distress, I’ll go for Puerh.

Whatever the tea, it must be high quality, and preferable loose tea. If you have one of JING’s porcelain straining mugs, then making loose tea at work is as easy as unwrapping a tea bag. Simply add a few pinches of tea to your strainer, pour a bit of boiled water over (add a splash of cold if you’re making white or green tea) and top your mug with the lid.

By the time you return to your desk your tea will be ready to sip. Pop the lid off and set your strainer on top. Then, when your colleagues call for the next tea round, all you have to do is pop your strainer back in and ask for a top up of hot water. They may give your mug of leaves a peculiar look, but they’ll be envious once the fragrance of the infused tea tickles their nose, they’ll be asking you where you source it!

MY FAVOURITE JING TEAS FOR WORK:

1 Mini Puerh Tea this is my favourite tea for work. Puerh give me a creative buzz like an espresso would but I don’t get that nasty crashing sensation that coffee tends to give you. The cake shape of this tea means you don’t even have to worry about measure your leaves out. Just unwrap a cake and pop it into your infuser mug. Use really hot water and the leaves will start to unravel. It’s heavenly, and I can credit this tea for lots of finished projects!

2 Organic Bohea Lapsang Tea – like Puerh, bohea is both relaxing and invigorating. It’s aroma is also just so enticing and wonderful to have swirling around you as you work.

3 Organic Dragon Well Green Tea – I like to brew this with quite hot; almost fully boiling water. It gives it a creamy texture. It feels really nourishing and is a great one if you’ve been rushing around all day and haven’t had a chance to eat much lunch. It’s also lower in caffeine so you can justify drinking several cups of it throughout the day.

Edith Sitwell, perhaps, paused for a cup of Bohea, a fine, pine-smoked tea from Fujian, when writing her long poem, “En Famille”:

In the early springtime after their tea,
Through the young fields of the springing Bohea,
Jemima, Jocasta, Dina and Deb
Walked with their father
Sir Joshua Jebb -

An admiral red, whose only notion,
(A butterfly poised on a pigtailed ocean)
Is of the peruked sea whose swell
Breaks on the flowerless rocks of Hell.
Under the thin trees, Deb and Dinah,
Jemima, Jocasta, walked, and finer
Their black hair seemed (flat-sleek to see)
Than the young leaves of the springing Bohea;
Their cheeks were like nutmeg-flowers when swells
The rain into foolish silver bells.
They said, “If the door you would only slam,
Or if, Papa, you would once say “Damn” -
Instead of merely roaring “Avast”
Or boldly invoking the nautical Blast -
We should now stand in the street of Hell
Watching siesta shutters that fell
With a noise like amber softly sliding;
Our moon-like glances through these gliding
Would see at her table preened and set
Myrrhina sitting at her toilette
With eyelids closed as soft as the breeze
That flows from gold flowers on the incense-trees.

The Admiral said,

“You could never call -
I assure you it would not do at all!
She gets down from table without saying “Please”,
Forgets her prayers and to cross her Ts,
In short, her scandalous reputation
Has shocked the whole of the
Hellish nation;
And every turbaned Chinoiserie,
With whom we should sip our black Bohea,
Would stretch out her simian fingers thin
To scratch you, my dears, like mandoline;
For Hell is just as properly proper
As Greenwich, or as, Bath, or Joppa!”